Janet Karamana Gituma a 50-year-old mother of two, was yesterday, Tuesday 27th of August, 2013, sentenced to thirty years behind bars for the murder of her husband who was a senior manager at the Central Bank of Kenya.
High Court Judge, Justice Nicholas Ombija convicted the business lady alongside her five-co accused for the murder of Moses Mbaabu Gituma at his Garden Estate residence in the outskirts of Nairobi on October 23, 2009.
The co-accused, security guard Evans Obangi Otwori, casual labourers Clement Munyao and Andrew Muuo Kimomo and matatu touts Muthii Mati and Peter Kibe also received the same sentence.
However, another co-accused, Clement Munyao Katiku was set free for luck of evidence.
A postmortem report presented before the court during the trials, showed that the deceased died of multiple internal injuries he sustained after five men attacked him at his residence with machetes and other unidentified crude weapons.
The report indicated that he also suffered mouth, face and head injuries. The deceased was admitted to hospital where he succumbed to injuries.
Describing the accused during the judgement, Justice Ombija referred to the her as ‘a schemer per excellence’ who had made her mind to murder her husband together with her co-accused in cold blood.
The prosecution on the other hand, led by counsel Daniel Karuri stated how the accused plotted to kill Mr. Gatimu. “She intentionally left her car at the salon and drove into Garden Estate accompanied by her co-plotters in a car bearing a fake registration number KBH 657J,” prosecution counsel Daniel Karuri told the court.
According to the evidence availed to the court, the second accused Evans Otwori, a security officer, was linked to the murder for making contradictory information in the visitor's logbook at the deceased home in Garden Estate.
Court documents indicated that the car used by Mr. Gatimu's killers entered his compound at 8:17pm and left at 8:15pm. Justice Ombija said the contradiction in the time which the car came in and left was suspicious. “The car could not leave before entering. The accused failed to offer to the court a satisfactory explanation for this inconsistency. The court can only conclude that it was meant to cover up the crime” he noted. He also noted many coincidences in Otwori's evidence. “There are too many coincidences that give credence to a conspiracy between Janet and Evans,” the judge concluded.
According to one of the prosecution's witnesses, a house-help at the deceased home, the wife had a good rapport with the killers.
Lawyer John Sakwa who represented the accused, argued that the two had a peaceful marriage and would not have plotted her husband's murder.
No comments:
Post a Comment